1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for attractively and conveniently displaying small articles containing magnets for sale.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the retail sales trade at establishments at which customers and prospective customers are presented with small items offered for sale, a need has existed for displaying such articles in a manner wherein a small article can be closely examined without the necessity for expensive packaging and packaging that, at least in part, makes the article difficult to view. One class of small devices which may be offered for sale in a variety of attractive displays are articles containing magnets. For example, in the sport of golf, divot repair tools, ball markers, and other devices containing magnets are often offered for sale at golf club pro shops, souvenir kiosks, and other similar locations that are subject to a high volume of customer traffic.
In the past, even devices containing magnets have typically been packaged in conventional packaging, such as blister packages, plastic boxes, clear plastic bags suspended from header cards, and other conventional types of packaging. However, for low cost items such as divot tools, magnetic ball markers, and other similar devices, the cost of conventional packaging represents a considerable portion of the cost of marketing the article.
The present invention involves a unique, attractive, yet very simply constructed device for displaying small articles containing magnets. The magnetic product display of the invention is advantageous over many conventional systems for displaying small magnetic articles for sale in that the display of the invention allows the product to be viewed without any covering between the product and the observer. That is, the observer need not look through a layer of transparent or translucent plastic in order to see the product. To the contrary, the product bearing the magnet is displayed to a prospective customer in such a way that the customer can touch, feel, handle, and closely examine the device. This is particularly advantageous in the marketing of small articles containing magnets, since, if such articles are mounted in blister cards or in packages, they cannot be freely handled by a customer and the magnetic properties of such articles cannot be tested by a prospective purchaser.
A further advantage of the display system of the invention is that it can be fabricated extremely economically. According to the system of the invention, a flat display panel is fabricated from a magnetically inert material. The display panel has a product display area and is disposed in an upright condition. The display panel can either be hung on a wall or some other vertical support, or it can be supported in an upright position, either in a vertical plane, or more typically, in an upwardly inclined plane. The display panel is equipped with a plurality of small ferrous elements that are incorporated into the structure of the display panel such that a magnetic force of a small article containing a magnet acts through a concealing front surface of the panel. The ferrous elements in the display panel attract articles containing magnets and draw them into contact with and hold them against the front display face of the panel. The ferrous elements are separated from the products bearing magnets which are displayed for sale by only a very thin layer of plastic or paper.
The display panel of the invention is extremely easy to fabricate. For example, the display panel may be formed of a sheet of corrugated paperboard in which a layer of paper is permanently deformed into a series of mutually parallel corrugations and sandwiched in between two flat sheets located on each of the opposite sides of the corrugated sheet. Adhesive on the interior surfaces of the flat sheets or on the corrugated sheet ensures that the corrugated sheet is firmly and permanently attached to the flat sheets due to the adhesive bond between the crests of the corrugations and the inwardly facing surfaces of the covering front and back sheets.
The construction of the corrugated paperboard display panel of the invention utilizes the same corrugated paperboard stock that is used to fabricate paperboard boxes for packaging and shipping innumerable different articles. The corrugations extend in mutually parallel disposition to each other between the covering front and back flat layers of paper to thereby define a multiplicity of tunnels within the display panel structure.
In conventional paperboard boxes, the corrugations are formed to provide the paperboard box walls with a certain stiffness. However, this construction has the advantage in that a multiplicity of concealed channels or tubes are defined within a generally flat paperboard wall having front and back surfaces between which the layer of corrugated paper is disposed.
The tubular channels or tunnels within a corrugated paperboard structure of this type are ideally suited to receive thin, straight lengths of ferrous wire. That is, steel wires can be inserted into some of the tunnels or channels within the corrugated paperboard display panel so that the wires are totally concealed from view. Nevertheless, they are attracted by the magnetic fields of small articles carrying magnets that act through the front, display surface of the display panel.
The present invention provides a convenient and very economical system for displaying small articles containing magnets. The magnetic articles, such as magnetic golf ball markers and golf divot tools containing magnets are merely placed against the front display surface of the flat display panel. The magnetic fields of the magnets act through the thin, front paper surface of the flat display panel, thus attracting the magnets and the devices to which they are attached against and into contact with the display panel. The magnet field of each magnetic article is sufficiently strong so that the small article containing the magnet is held in position against the front display surface of the panel, even though the panel is inclined at a very steep angle, or even in a vertical position.
Because the corrugations formed in conventional paperboard structures provide the necessary channels for inserting the steel wires into the display panel, no special construction or expensive fabrication of the device is required. Quite to the contrary, the display of the invention can be fabricated from conventional, corrugated paperboard sheet stock and a thin, steel wire.
In one broad aspect the invention may be considered to be a display for exhibiting an array of magnetic products. The display is comprised of a flat display panel constructed of a magnetically inert material and having a product display area, a support for holding the display panel in an upright disposition, and a plurality of ferrous elements incorporated into the display panel and located across the product display area.
Preferably the display panel is comprised of a sheet of corrugated paperboard that defines a multiplicity of mutually parallel, concealed tunnels therewithin. The ferrous elements are preferably comprised of straight lengths of steel wire inserted into at least some of the tunnels. Typically, the steel wires are inserted into less than all of the tunnels in the sheet of corrugated paperboard. The steel wires are spaced apart an appropriate distance. This reduces the amount of steel wire required and also allows some lateral separation between the magnetic articles to be displayed on the display panel.
Preferably, each of the steel wires is located at a uniform, spaced distance from other adjacent steel wires. Typically, the steel wires may be spaced apart a distance of about one and one-half inches to allow the display of golf divot repair tools that contain magnets therewithin.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention a positioning sheet is disposed against the front display surface of the display panel. The positioning sheet has an array of article positioning openings defined therethrough at uniform, repeating intervals from each other. The positioning sheet is overlaid upon the flat display panel so that the article positioning openings reside in registration with the steel wires in the tunnels.
While the display sheet can be hung vertically utilizing a picture hanging apparatus, more typically the support of the display is a stand located behind the flat display panel. The stand holds the display panel in an upright disposition upon a flat horizontal surface, typically at an angle of about seventy degrees relative to horizontal. The stand may also conveniently include an inventory container such as a box or tray to hold a supply of the magnetic products for replenishing the magnetic products as they are sold and removed from the article positioning openings.
In another broad aspect the invention may be considered to be a display device for releaseably holding magnetic articles aloft for display, typically in a retail sales display. The display device includes an thin, flat, expansive, magnetically inert display board having a front display surface; a support for holding the display board at an angle of at least forty-five degrees relative to horizontal; and a plurality of ferrous member located within the display board behind the front display surface. In this way, when magnetic articles are placed in contact with the front display surface, they will adhere thereto due to the force of magnetic attraction of the magnetic articles to the ferrous members through the front display surface.
In still another broad aspect the invention may be considered to be a sales display comprising: a magnetically inert display panel having a display surface with an exposed area large enough to display a multiplicity of magnetized articles, a support for holding the display surface at an upright orientation, and at least one ferrous article embedded in the display surface and concealed behind the exposed area of the display surface.
The invention may be described with greater clarity and particularity by reference to the accompanying drawings.